President Obama has urged that we "need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards". Indeed, his first nominee for Director of C.I.A. Leon Panetta promised flatly that no C.I.A. agent or officer would be prosecuted for crimes in the past. So now we face a new nominee. Let's look forward. Will we honor our treaties that require us to prosecute or extradite torturers? It's known that men were waterboarded while in U.S. custody, that waterboarding is torture and that we're obliged to prosecute or extradite torturers. What we don't know is whether John O. Brennan conceives that the C.I.A. is above the law. While he is under oath in front of the Senate for confirmation hearing, we need answers much firmer than we've had yet.